Orphan. Widow. Slave. “Hottentot Venus.” The tragic mythology is that Saartje Baartman was a young African woman, ripped from her land and her people, exhibited to staring, pointing and laughing crowds as a freak with a huge derriere, who ended her life as a penniless prostitute, dying alone in Paris, far from home. After her…
Category: Consent
Got Girl Boner?
Have you ever met someone you’ve known, via the wonder of the Interwebs, for a while, and you’re a total fangirl of their work and you worry, when you do finally get to meet them, that you will either babble like a brook or be totally tongue-tied? Welp. I met August McLaughlin, for an interview…
Anger? I am Incandescent with Rage – Why Aren’t You?
We are too loud, we are too strident. We should protest, but gently, softly. (Not unironically, very much like the sweet, girlish voice of Dr. Blasey Ford, whom they politely pretended to listen to, before ignoring.)
Amber Rose Slutwalk 2015 vs Slutwalk LA 2011
When it comes to rape myths, that battle is already won, or almost won, at least in SoCal. As I walked around downtown LA with my “No Shaming This Slut” Slutwalk sign, people asked about it, and everyone nodded their heads in agreement, that of course no one deserves to be raped because of what they are wearing. (There may be a few troglodytes who still feel differently, but they are also the tinfoil hat kind who believe we faked the Moon landing, so, whatevs.)
50 Shades of Rape
I avoided the #AskELJames Twitter party/skewering, because generally, I don’t “do” Twitter, FaceBook events, and the like, but found myself in some interesting group discussions about it, and her work, anyway. Some female writers I know, along with EL James herself, vigorously deny the reality that, as depicted in Fifty Shades of Grey, Christian rapes Ana.…